An Analysis Of The Translation Techniques For The Analogical Argumentation Of Military Thoughts In Zhan Guo Ce (The Strategies Of The Warring States)

As a country with 5,000 years of civilization,China has a rich and splendid culture,in which the achievements in the military thoughts occupy a very important position.The ancient Chinese military thoughts are the core knowledge of the ancient Chinese military experience and strategies.The transmission of the ancient Chinese military thoughts may help to enhance communication between China and the rest of the world in the field of military thoughts.During the Warring States period,there were constant conflicts between states.The accumulation of war experience led to the rapid development of military thought.A large number of military works emerged during the Warring States period.Zhan Guo Ce(The Strategies of the Warring States)is one of those works that records the military thoughts and specific practical applications at that time.The analogical argumentation used in this book converts the profound military thoughts into easily comprehensible ideas,which helps readers better understand the military thoughts and tactics during that period.James I.Crump,an American Sinologist,produced his English version of Zhan Guo Ce,entitled as Chan-Kuo Ts’ e in 1970.The Chinese translator Zhai Jiangyue published her version of Zhan Guo Ce under the title of Records on the Warring States Period as one of the translation series of the Library of Chinese Classics Project in 2008.According to Cicero’s thoughts on translation,meaning and language power of the source text should be transferred to the target text.The function of the analogical argumentation is reasoning.Hence,the language power of analogical argumentation of the source text is important for target readers to understand the whole argument.Based on the English translations of Zhan Guo Ce by James I.Crump and Zhai Jiangyue respectively,this thesis analyzes the translation techniques of the analogical argumentation of the military thoughts in Zhan Guo Ce(The Strategies of the Warring States)from three aspects,namely,rhetorical force,culturally loaded words and narrative storylines.The research results are as follows: For the translation of analogical argumentation with rhetorical force,formal equivalence is an important translation technique to preserve the linguistic force and rhythm of the original analogical argumentation.In translating the analogical argumentation of military thoughts with cultural expressions,cultural meanings could be more adequately conveyed by using descriptive translation,cultural equivalence,explicitation and interpretive translation.Cultural gaps may be filled and cultural characteristics may be clarified to the target readers.With a better understanding of the cultural background information embodied within the cultural expressions in the source text,the target readers can better understand the analogical argumentation.In translating the analogical argumentation of military thoughts with narrative features,such translation techniques as explicitation,footnotes and interlinear notes are used to fill in the background knowledge of the event in order to preserve the flow of thought,storylines,the integrity and the logic of the narrative.These techniques improve the readability and comprehensibility of the translations of analogical argumentation with military thoughts while preserving the argumentative language force.Keeping the meaning and language power of the source text can better transfer the characteristics of the analogical argumentation.The target readers can easily appreciate the language power of analogical argumentation of military thoughts.The findings may provide a new perspective for the translation of the analogical argumentation of ancient Chinese military thoughts in the Chinese classics.